


Born to Fuck Each Other One Way or Another

by voodoochild



Category: L.A. Quartet - James Ellroy
Genre: Awesome Ladies Ficathon, F/M, Infidelity, Rape Recovery, Sexual Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-28
Updated: 2010-06-28
Packaged: 2017-10-10 07:33:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/pseuds/voodoochild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inez Soto is broken, everyone knows that, but she thinks she can see everything coming. She can't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born to Fuck Each Other One Way or Another

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LadyFest '10, for the prompt "I just made you up to hurt myself (and it worked)". Spoils the Ed/Inez/Bud/Lynn love polyhedron, but very little else.
> 
> Warning: Explicit talk of gang-rape, victim-blaming, and ethnic slurs.

The only member of her family that would see her after the Nite Owl was Rosalia, her sister.

"Ah, Inez," Rosa would sigh. "_Perdón, mi hermana. Nadie le deseará ahora._"

Rosa was kinder than most. If Inez wanted to hear condemnation, she'd have gone to the priests, who informed her she was spoiled and could not have communion. Or her brothers, who called her a worthless _puta_ and told her to go bleach her cunt, because the _negritos_ had dirtied it.

Eventually, she went to the only two men who had ever treated her like a person and not just a victim: Ed Exley and Bud White.

Ed was a gentleman. Once he stopped seeing her as a step on a career path, he treated her like a lady. He was her goddamn hero, killing three men on her word, and coming home to her every night. Slowly, she began to see what he wanted from her - an outlet. Someone to be gentle with. Who would look at him and see a good man, not a backstabbing politician.

It was a mistake. Ever since those six hours on that dirty, stinking mattress, Inez's eyes were open. She saw who he was; willing to use her for his image, willing to use everyone to gain his precious "absolute justice".

So she let him use her. It was all right, because she used him too.

And then there was Bud, who sat at her bedside in the hospital. Who held her hand every time she gave her statement. Who let her sleep in his bed and took her dancing to cheer her up. Whose hands never once hesitated when they touched her (even her Ed hesitated, every single time). Bud, who sectioned off his life. He had his beautiful Lynn, his golden Veronica Lake goddess who was his everything, and he had Inez, who he protected not from others, but from herself.

Bud always said she was like him: she felt too much. She let the anger build and build until it had nowhere to go. He beat up suspects. She fucked around. They burned hot (_caliente, mi hombre_, she would say, and he would laugh, fingers playing between her legs) and fast, never looking back. Lynn was Bud's perfect ice-queen, Ed was Inez's polished diamond, and it was always so much effort fighting the cold.

And then Ed found out.

Screaming, yelling, glass breaking and vicious words thrown in her face.

_Oh, querido, you turn ugly so well,_ she'd said. It was the most truthful she'd ever been with him, and it was liberating. The truth had set both of them free, and she'd walked out, finally. Walked all the way to Bud's apartment, raised her fist to knock on the door, and when Bud pulled it open, fell into his arms, triumphant. Free.

Her world came crashing down less than a week later, when Bud came to her office, Preston and Ray having left for the night. His eyes were red-rimmed, knuckles split open and he wouldn't stop shaking.

Lynn and Ed. Together. Behind their backs.

It was easy being the betrayer, Inez thought, as she climbed into Bud's lap like a child, holding him close. Easy to break the rules yourself.

You never consider the consequences.

**Author's Note:**

> Perdón, mi hermana. Nadie le deseará ahora. - I'm sorry, my sister. No one will want you now.  
> puta - whore  
> negritos - African-American men  
> caliente, mi hombre - hot, my lover  
> querido - darling/sweetheart (masculine)


End file.
